Sucrose-derived carbon membranes for sustainable water desalination

Synthesis and preparation of carbon membranes have been carried out and applied for desalination. Carbon is obtained from sucrose by pyrolyzing at various temperatures. Carbon membranes are made by coating alumina tubes with sucrose solution using dip-coating. The effect of carbonization temperature on the character of the membrane material and the desalination performance was investigated. This study’s results indicate that the carbonization temperature modifies the characteristics of membrane material. TGA data show that solid sucrose is thermally stable up to 210°C. This result aligns with the FTIR results, which show that functional group changes occur when the carbonization temperature exceeds 200°C. The GSA data shows that the resulting adsorption isotherm is type V, indicating mesoporous material. However, the volume and pore size of the carbon membrane material is minimal. SEM results show that carbon is dense but not equitably distributed. The salt rejection reached 100%, and the water flux was greater than 10 kg.m −2 .h −1 at a feed concentration of 1% and a temperature of 60°C. Salt rejection is consistent at around 100% for up to 60 h for long-term testing. The absence of significant alterations indicates the high stability of the carbon membrane.